Category Archives: Ducharme, Diann

At seventeen, Abigail Sinclair is a young woman just becoming aware of herself and her place in the world. She has taken for granted her family’s position in society and her parents’ plans for her future. Although her father’s wealth has been diminished by the Civil War, he still has enough money to build a house at Nags Head. Her father, Nolan Sinclair, has fished on the Outer Banks and been charmed by the place. In a rare show of kindness, Mr. Sinclar decides to help one of the Bankers, a young guide named Benjamin Whimble. Ben would like to learn to read and write, so Sinclair sets Abigail to that task.

Abigail has never met anyone like Ben before. He opens her eyes to the beauty of nature and to how ordinary people live. They fall in love. But Ben has been pulled into Mr. Sinclair’s scheme to take the land on Roanoke Island that has been a freedmen’s colony. When Abigail witnesses her father’s cruelty, the lovers are incidental causalities of his violence and racism. Not everyone is redeemed in this novel, but the book does end on a satisfying note of hope.